Susan Schauf’s reviews

Please beware! Don't waste your money!

1.0 star

Posted by Courtney Kuker (Vroman) November 27, 2016

DO NOT USE THIS ATTORNEY! You will be extremely disappointed! When you first meet with her she will tell you that she's so much better than any other attorney in Tucson and she'll do so much more for you. She will justify why her prices are way higher than any other attorney. I paid her over $5500.00, and I got absolutely nothing in return but email correspondence back-and-forth with her. (yes, she charged me for each and every single email) she was so horrible that I actually went and found another attorney that completely saved my whole entire divorce. She's completely condescending when she talks to you AND extremely rude. the amount of work she does is completely disheartening. Her legal assistant will do most of the work and tries her very best but obviously she's not the attorney. I tried my hardest to get my hard earned money back and I was very unsuccessful, so I thought if I could save somebody thousands of dollars especially in a time of emotional distress it would be worth it for me. She makes you play a flat see upfront which absolutely will not cover anything and make it impossible for you to move forward or get any payment back. She claims that she works with military and I was military and she did absolutely nothing for me except for lose every single battle. We went to court and she didn't even know what was going on she completely confused everybody and it was horribly embarrassing. She also does not have a professional appearance. she wears way too much make up and looks like a complete clown. she wears hair extensions that can be shown and tries her best with plastic surgery to cover it all up. It was a complete disgrace to my family. Please hire an attorney that cares about your case your well-being and of course your future. Going to a divorce is extremely difficult so you need someone that will actually benefit you and help you. There are several awesome attorneys in Tucson my recommendation would be Reagen Kulseth. I I can be reached if you have any further questions or if you need to see any kind of documentation. Trust me read the reviews on this lady google search her and follow it! People have completely had their life destroyed because of this lady. Ask other attorneys about her as well...horrible lady!

Susan M. Schauf’s response:“Courtney, we are so sorry that you are dissatisfied with our services. We tried our best. We wrote off two-thirds of your bill in an attempt to appease you. You terminated our services before trial, retained and paid new counsel, ultimately chose to represent yourself and then lost at trial, having a $37,942 judgment entered against you in addition to attorney's fees. You are now on your fourth attorney. You lost the State Bar of Arizona Fee Arbitration dispute which decision resulted in this negative review. We are truly sorry that you have endured so much pain in your divorce proceeding, but this kind of negative personal attack is untrue as well as unwarranted. I am a certified specialist in Family Law and have been in practice for over 39 years. I have successfully litigated hundreds of similar cases. I have multiple family members that have served in the military and continue to be honored to represent military service men and women. We wish you the best in your future endeavors.”

Very Knowledgeable Attorney

5.0 stars

Posted by Jason June 15, 2016

I first heard about Susan from a coworker who had used her services and was pleased, at a time when my attorney was difficult to contact or always seemed to be working on someone else's case. After hearing about my coworkers positive review of Susan, I went and talked to her. She took the time to talk to me about what to expect and what the law states regarding divorce.
Shortly after moving my file over to her office, Susan picked up all the short-comings my previous attorney had either missed or just not completed. I went from feeling like a mushroom, to being in the loop of information and my former spouse's attorney then became the one dragging his feet and not getting paperwork done. My divorce has dragged on, but not by any doing of Susan. She has pushed and pulled as much as she could, and I am very pleased with the outcome of my settlement. I highly recommend her if you need her. Divorce is an ugly thing and I felt very comfortable having her handle my case.

Experience and Professionalism

5.0 stars

Anonymous review posted onApril 21, 2016

Susan cleaned up the mess my first attorney made of my divorce by filing ill-conceived and untimely motions and running up my costs needlessly. She got the motions vacated and got my divorce settlement back on track. She corrected the combative atmosphere that my first attorney had created and established an atmosphere of professionalism. Susan is very focused and clear thinking and will not lead you down paths that run up your legal costs and not achieve the results intended. Due to her many years in the legal system, she understands explicitly what will and will not work. Listen to her advice and you will be fine.

Great Focus

5.0 stars

Posted by Clair March 16, 2016

I chose Susan Schauf after using an attorney who got me kicked out of my house at the beginning of my divorce. The attorney I started with bungled many things in addition to getting me kicked out of my house.

Susan is very "no nonsense" and focuses on the important issues which in my case was parenting time and spousal maintenance. My now ex-wife was demanding $4,500.00 for four years and $3,500.00 for life and was attempting to make it so I could see my daughter for only four days per month. It was apparent right away that Susan knew exactly how to deal with such demands and behavior. She guided me through the process and was able to defeat my ex-wife's demands of outrageous spousal maintenance and absurd parenting plan demands. Susan was also able to defeat the demand of my ex-wife's expectation that I pay for all of her legal bills in addition to mine.

Although not required, Susan even accompanied me to the mediation hearing. In hind sight, this event was paramount and Susan was able to see first hand that my now ex-wife and her attorney were making outrageous demands that Arizona law does not support.

This divorce was brutal and some friends and acquaintances of mine all say that it is the worst one of which they have ever heard. However, nothing ever rattled Susan. She's seemingly seen it all and has vast experience interacting with outrageous and unlawful demands and never waivered during the legal battle. It is my observation that she is intimately familiar with family law and can help especially those who are facing a difficult divorce to include all aspects of it.

I have already recommended a friend of mine to Susan as he was experiencing trouble getting positive results from the attorney he had hired before. It is my understanding that he is, in fact, using her services and he is now more confident of the outcome.

Further, my divorce started and finished in Pinal County jurisdiction which created a relatively long distance operation for Susan as she is in Pima County but she handled it without fail and filed all necessary records always in a timely fashion.

Susan is sharp, focused, and directly to the point. She is very busy but was always responsive to my needs. Finally, and for me this is MOST important, Susan Schauf responds promptly to questions and concerns I had. Whenever I sent a question via email, Susan responded in as little as minutes which is VERY important to me.

I recommend Susan Schauf for your family law matters needs as she did an outstanding job for me and created a very manageable outcome for me which are well within expectations.

I'd rate her 0 if I could! PLEASE go elsewhere!!

1.0 star

Anonymous review posted onFebruary 4, 2016

I implore you, look elsewhere!

Susan Schauf is one of the rudest, most condescending woman I have EVER met. The fact that she hasn't lost her license yet is simply amazing to me. She doesn't answer her phone or return emails. The rare times that she did, she was so rude she actually brought me to tears a few times. She spoke to me like I was an idiot every time I asked her a question. During settlement negotiations, I would frequently email her a concern I had and she would just hit forward on her email and send it to my ex-husband's attorney without typing up her own response to his attorney. This is a breach of attorney-client privilege!! It happened so much I actually had to tell her to stop sending them that way, as I did NOT want my ex's lawyer to be privy to my concerns or where I stood on matters.

After 2 different email chains between the lawyers, when I said I wasn't going to accept my ex-husband's offer, she got so angry with me that she said she was just going to charge me $2500 to bring him to court and not bother on trying to settle out of court and if I wasn't ok with that, she would just withdraw herself from the case. I swear to you, this was a simple case that could have been settled months before it was if she had put in ANY effort into it.

During one of the rare times she agreed to see me in person, she had me wait in her living room. (She practices from her home). Her house has an open floor plan, and I had to listen to her and her assistant discuss, loudly and clearly, another person's confidential matters. I also heard her (not her assistant) speak so derogatory and condescending about her client who wasn't there that I actually felt embarassed and sorry for him. It was so very unprofessional, and I left wondering what she'd said about me with others around. If I hadn't spent thousands already and had the means to hire someone else, I would have. But I knew I was stuck, like it or not.

During our settlement conference, she was late (she was for every meeting I had with her) and had NO idea who I was, even after meeting with me a few times before. She hadn't even looked at my file ahead of time and was quizing me before going into the room to talk with my ex and his attorney. She was CLUELESS.

After a horrible experience with her, we did finally get the divorce decree signed. She had the NERVE to hug me when it was over. Are you kidding me?!?! She told me to call her anytime if I had questions or concerns. When I called her after months of not getting final documents, I got several rude emails back saying she was busy and she'd get them to me when she had time. When I finally got the documents, they were sent TO MY EX'S HOUSE! Not only that, they were addressed to the wrong name. The cover letter in the inside of the envelope actually had 2 different names written in it. One was almost my correct name (she addressed me by my married name, not maiden name I had it changed to), but she spelled my first name wrong. The other was my correct first name, but a completely made up last name. How hard is it to send your client their documents that they should have gotten months ago, and actually send them to the correct address and to the correct name? Just another example of the shoddy job she does.

So I beg you all, PLEASE PLEASE consider someone else. Divorce is an incredibly stressful and scary situation. You don't need your lawyer making it 100x worse for you. I wish to God I had read the reviews more carefully and chosen someone else. Ultimately I went with her because I felt she had been practicing for a long time and must know a great deal, and to be honest, she was cheaper. But years of work doesn't equal experience, and it most certainly doesn't equate to being good with clients. The years have made her nothing if not coarse and uncaring. Spend a little more money, research a little more than I did. You'll be so thankful you did!

Most unprofessional, unresponsive and inefficient "professional" I have ever met.

1.0 star

Posted by Laura June 2, 2015

Do NOT hire this attorney! Either hire a paralegal to handle your paperwork or hire an attorney who will actually represent you and your interests. July 2, 2014 my husband served me with divorce papers. I hired a paralegal to file my response in an attempt to save the attorney costs. However, since my husband retained an attorney and since I was concerned about potentially going to trial regarding the parenting time of my one year old and three year old sons, I hired Susan Schauf to represent me in November of 2014.
On February 4, 2015, I attempted to contact Ms. Schauf via telephone twice regarding my case with no response. On February 5 in an email, Ms. Schauf informed me that her telephone service had been down the previous day. On February 11, Ms. Schauf forwarded me an email from my husband's attorney which had the settlement agreement, consent decree and child support order attached. She wrote the following on the email, "For your information. Please review and advise as soon as possible. Deadline of February 17th is set forth below in the email." February 11th was a Wednesday and February 17th was a Tuesday so that gave us five business days to respond. I called Ms. Schauf's office the same week I received her email to speak with her about revisions and questions I had concerning the divorce documents. She seemed very upset that my call interrupted what she was doing. She told me that she had not even had a chance to look at the divorce documents yet, but that she would get out of the program that she was currently in, pull up all of my information and go over it "line by line" with me. I have never been treated so discourteously by anyone, especially not by someone I have paid $3500.00 to represent me and my interests.
On February 18, 2015, Ms. Schauf emailed me requesting that I provide my credit card information, equity numbers and tsp balance...all of which I previously provided to her at the onset of her taking my case. For her convenience, I provided all of the requested information again. On February 26, 2015, Ms. Schauf sent me an email stating that she was out of the office preparing for trial and would "address my remaining concerns next week". Over two months passed with no contact from Ms. Schauf...either to me nor to my husband's attorney, who tried to contact her repeatedly. By this point, my husband was harassing me and accusing me of trying to slow down the divorce process. I attempted to contact Ms. Schauf in April via telephone and her secretary informed me that she was reviewing my divorce documents and would contact me once she was finished. I waited a few more weeks with no response from Ms. Schauf, then decided that no representation was better than her representation. It was now the end of April so I mailed Ms. Schauf a certified letter requesting termination of representation. On may 5th, I received an email from Ms. Schauf stating that she had received my letter. She suggested that I retain her counsel, and stated that it would help her determine the right child support amount if I provided her with my 2014 w2 and the last pay stub from 2014. Since both of these documents had already been provided to her, this only reaffirmed my decision to remove her as my representation. On May 14th, I received a letter from Ms. Schauf stating that she had filed the application to withdraw as counsel of record and order allowing withdrawal of counsel. That same day, I received a family law trial notice from my husband's attorney informing me that trial was scheduled for August 13, 2015.
My husband stated that his attorney could only find one court document regarding my case with Ms. Schauf's name on it...the document stating that she was my representation. My case is an open and shut one. All Ms. Schauf had to do was review the divorce documents provided to her by my husband's attorney and meet with me to discuss it.

Angry, condescending lawyer that has no time for you

1.0 star

Posted by Stella March 6, 2015

I had a very bad experience with Susan Schauf. I started with another attorney that passed away so I took on Susan Schauf who would take over the case. Various times I asked Susan if she had reviewed my case and she always said no and complained that my file was too thick. She was very unprofessional and had no people skills.

She asked the judge to give her more time to become more prepared with my case and she never actually became familiar with my case. At one time she thought my husband was retired military (which he is not). I gave her various letters to provide as disclosures for when we went to court because I have a medical condition. When we went to court she never disclosed my medical condition. The judge had to find out (on her own) why I had so many medical costs and came to find out that Susan never disclosed this information and was shocked.

The few times I called to talk to Susan on the phone she was very rude and/or unavailable. One time she did take my call and told me I had 2 minutes to talk to her because she didn't have time to talk to me. When we did go to court she was not prepared at all. All she had in her hand was my W-2 form and did everything possible to settle out of court. She even used unprofessional language trying to get my husband and I to agree on a settlement out of court because she was so unprepared. After the proceedings she was very angry with me because the judge had called her and my husband's attorney to have a sidebar. The judge couldn't make a decision at the time for spousal support because she didn't disclose all the paperwork she should have. When we got out of court she was very angry with me and told me that things we're going to go worse for me. I asked her why and she yelled at me, "DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?" and said she would not do another thing for me until she received more money even though I had already given her payment in full. She wanted an additional $2700.

With my medical condition I decided this lawyer was too stressful for me and was not working in my favor. She didn't even know my case.

Also, she works from her home and you can hear her speaking to other clients from her living room and she's very rude to them also. When she hangs up her and her assistant talk about the cases and make fun of the people. Very disrespectful.

Decent fights for client but expensive

4.0 stars

Anonymous review posted onAugust 29, 2014

Very knowledgable lawyer with many years in Tucson Law. She fought for my case in my divorce settlement, I was very happy and greatful for that. She knows the law and will fight for what's right. She is however, expensive, she constantly asked for additional money and doesn't reimburse, I had to pay additional trial fees beyond my initial fee of$4500. When the divorce was settled without going to trial I was Not reimbursed the additional $2500 or any part of it, keep that in mind. At times it was difficult dealing with her and her staff as far as communication regarding due dates and documents required. I guess I would reccomend her, because I am overall happy with my outcome. If I had to do it over I think I would call around and speak with SEVERAL attorney's before settling. Good luck, none of it is easy.

Most Dependable and Honest Lawyer I've Met

5.0 stars

Posted by Ryan February 14, 2013

That says a lot. I do video depositions for court reporters and I've met many different lawyers. I am happy to say that Susan is the most responsible and absolutely most trustworthy lawyer I've ever met. I am happy to endorse her and would recommend her to anyone I know - both family and friends.

She will hound you for MORE MONEY!! That house can't pay for itself!

1.0 star

Posted by Jimmie February 11, 2013

I'm in the military and I knew this woman would be a problem when I wasn't able to to get off work in order to meet with her. She really wanted me to bring more money. That bothered me the way I was being treated so I told her you work for me and asked for my money back. She yelled saying this is twice you've had to reschedule and for that reason you can't have your deposit back. I informed her that our career fields are totally different, and I can't just leave my job or make my own schedule. We got through all that (Because I had already started paying her and couldn't get my money back.) only for her to show up on the day of my divorce mediation and not even remember my name. I'VE PAID YOU THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND YOU GET HERE AND DON'T EVEN KNOW MY NAME??? Then she got an attitude when I try to jog her memory. My divorce didn't go as planned at all. My children only receive $160 a month from their mother who is a full time nurse. Thanks to Susan and AZ courts, my ex has shared joint legal custody and daddy has had to continue picking up the slack. I paid over 6k in daycare alone last year.